Conventionally, a common-rail fuel infection device includes a common rail as a pressure-accumulation vessel, which is configured to accumulate fuel at high pressure. The common rail is further configured to distribute the high-pressure fuel to fuel injection valves for injecting the distributed fuel respectively to cylinders of an internal combustion engine. Such a conventional common-rail fuel injection device in JP-A-2006-200378 includes a pressure sensor as a rail pressure sensor. The pressure sensor is mounted to the common rail for detecting pressure of fuel accumulated in the common rail. The common-rail fuel injection device is configured to control various devices such as a fuel pump for supplying fuel to the common rail based on a detection result of the pressure sensor.
The fuel injection device in JP-A-2006-200376 controls an injection quantity Q by controlling an opening period Tq of the fuel injection valve. Even in fuel injection valves of the same type, each fuel injection valve has a specific relationship between the opening period and the injection quantity, and the specific relationship has an individual difference. Therefore, the specific relationship as an injection characteristic (Tq−Q characteristic) is examined for each fuel injection valve before factory shipment thereof. The injection characteristic, which is obtained through the examination, is encoded to generate a QR Code (registered trademark), which indicates individual difference information. The QR Code is adhered to the fuel injection valve.
The QR Code, which indicates the individual difference information, is read using a scanner device. Thereafter, the individual difference information is stored in an engine ECU, which controls an operating condition of an engine. After the factory shipment of the fuel injection valve, the fuel injection valve is mounted to an engine. Thus, the engine ECU of the engine manipulates the opening period Tq based on the stored individual difference information, thereby controlling the injection quantity Q of the fuel injection valve.
However, in recent years, it is required to further control various kinds of injection states, in addition to controlling the injection quantity Q in one opening of in the fuel injection valve, which is mounted to the engine. The various kinds of injection states may include an actual injection start point, a maximum injection rate reach point, and the like in each injection. That is, even when the injection quantity Q is the same, if an injection state such as an actual injection start point and a maximum injection rate reach point is changed, the combustion state of the engine is changed. As a result, output torque of the engine and the state of exhaust air are changed.
In particular, in a fuel injection device for performing a multi-stage injection in a diesel engine, if is required to control the injection state, such as actual injection start point and the maximum injection rate reach point, other than the injection quantity Q so as to control multiple fuel injections in one burning cycle.
On the contrary, in the fuel injection device according to JP-A-2006-200378, only the Tq−Q characteristic is obtained by conducting the examination, and the Tq−Q characteristic is stored as the individual difference information of the fuel injection valve. Therefore, injection states other than the injection quantity Q cannot be obtained as the individual difference. Thus, if is difficult to control the injection states other than injection quantity Q with high accuracy.